Lubabah bint al-Harith

ProfileLubabah bint al-Harith

Lubabah (may Allah be pleased with her), known as Umm al-Fadl after her eldest son, was the daughter of al-Harith ibn Hazn, of the Banu Hilal, a Bedouin tribe known for living in hard conditions in the desert. She was the wife of al-Abbas, the Prophet's ﷺ uncle, and the mother of al-Fadl, Abdullah, Ubaydullah and Qutham, and others. She should not be confused with her sister Lubabah as-Sughra, the mother of Khalid ibn al-Walid, nor with Lubabah bint Abi Lubabah. Her father and her mother, Hind bint Awf, married more than once, so that many of the people of the seerah were her relatives. Her full sister was Maymunah, who became the last wife of the Prophet ﷺ. Her half-sisters through her mother were Zaynab bint Khuzaymah, the Mother of the Poor, Asma bint Umays, who was married to Ja'far, Abu Bakr and Ali, and Salma bint Umays, the wife of Hamzah and then of Shaddad ibn al-Had. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ called these four sisters, Lubabah, Maymunah, Asma and Salma, the believing sisters.

According to the early biographies, she was the first woman to accept Islam after Khadijah. Adh-Dhahabi says that no woman accepted before her except Khadijah, and Ibn Hajar says that the only one who could have been before her was Fatimah bint al-Khattab. According to the early biographies, she was close to Khadijah and used to sit with the Prophet ﷺ in his house and in the house of al-Arqam. Her son Abdullah ibn Abbas told that he and his mother were among the weak, the children and the women (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, she was open about her Islam, and prayed. Her husband's freed slave, Abu Rafi, accepted Islam through her and kept it secret. Al-Abbas held back, and she used to ask Allah to guide him and to turn him away from usury, which was part of his business, long before it was forbidden. In his sermon at the Farewell Hajj the Prophet ﷺ said that the first of their usury that he abolished was that of al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (Sahih Muslim).

According to the early biographies, she gave birth to Abdullah ibn Abbas in the valley during the boycott, when the Prophet ﷺ was under great strain, and the Prophet ﷺ was so glad to see the child that he put a little of his own saliva in his mouth. She kept her faith in Makkah when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated and al-Abbas stayed behind. According to the early biographies, when al-Abbas was brought out with Quraysh to Badr and was taken prisoner, the Prophet ﷺ told him to ransom himself, and said, "Where is the gold that you and Umm al-Fadl buried, when you said to her that if you were killed she should keep it for al-Fadl, Abdullah and Qutham?" Al-Abbas said that this was a thing known to no one but himself and her, and that he knew that the Prophet ﷺ was the Messenger of Allah.

According to the early biographies, while the news of Badr was awaited, Abu Lahab was pacing in the tent, and sat down with his back against Abu Rafi's, and when Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith arrived and told them what had happened, Abu Rafi said that those were the angels. Abu Lahab got up and beat him badly. Lubabah took a tent pole and struck Abu Lahab on the head and split it, and said, "Do you take advantage of him because his master is away?" Abu Lahab died a few days later. According to the early biographies, al-Abbas accepted Islam publicly after Hudaybiyyah, not long before the conquest of Makkah, though accounts differ on when, and moved his family to Madinah. It was al-Abbas who gave her sister Maymunah in marriage to the Prophet ﷺ.

Abdullah ibn Abbas told that he stayed the night in the house of his aunt Maymunah, and watched the Prophet ﷺ pray at night (Sahih al-Bukhari). Umm al-Fadl told that the people doubted whether the Prophet ﷺ was fasting on the Day of Arafah, so she sent him something to drink, and he drank it (Sahih al-Bukhari), and in the narration of Muslim she says that it was a cup of milk, which she sent to him as he was riding his camel at Arafah, and he drank it. Ibn Abbas told that his mother heard him reciting "Wal-mursalati urfa" and said that it was the last surah she heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and that he recited it in the Maghrib prayer (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim).

Qabus told that Umm al-Fadl said to the Prophet ﷺ that it was as if she had seen, in a dream, one of his limbs in her house. He said that what she saw was good: Fatimah would give birth to a boy and she would nurse him. Fatimah gave birth to Husayn, and Umm al-Fadl nursed him with the milk of Qutham. She said that she brought him to the Prophet ﷺ and put him in his lap, and he urinated, and she struck him on the shoulder, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "You have hurt my son, may Allah have mercy on you" (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded sahih). Lubabah told that Husayn was in the lap of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and urinated on him, and she asked him to put on another garment and give her his wrapper to wash, and he said that the urine of a girl is washed and the urine of a boy is sprinkled (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan sahih; Sunan Ibn Majah, graded sahih). She narrated a number of hadith from the Prophet ﷺ, which were passed on by her son Abdullah and by others. According to the early biographies, she died in the caliphate of Uthman, and was prayed over and buried in al-Baqi.

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